School Leaders' Collective 2017 | What can schools do to retain their teachers?

It's our 15th year and The Teacher Foundation (TTF) is ready with its first School Leaders' Collective for 2017! This time we are focussing on a recurring bone of contention for all school leaders and school managements - teacher retention!

On the one hand Bangalore is booming with new schools that promise their students a progressive & world class education. On the other hand, the city's old established schools are having difficulty attracting the best teachers like they used to a couple of decades ago. Indeed teacher attrition is a crisis that all schools are struggling with.

Teachers are the most important resource for a school. The reputation of every great school has been solely built on the basis of its teachers and headteachers. And yet this vital human resource has today become an almost transient commodity that keeps hopping schools. This is deeply problematic. When there's frequent movement of teachers and headteachers, Students are deprived of the stability and security they deserve in their formative learning years. Moreover teachers deprive themselves of the time and equilibrium that's needed to reflect and mature into inspiring and legendary educators.

This collective aims at looking squarely at this problem and discussing all the possible reasons for teacher attrition and practical ways to stem this outflow. Some of these ways could be personal, others philosophical and still others managerial & financial.

 In this context, TTF is bringing together a panel of experienced school heads from schools across Bangalore, to share their experiences and thoughts on ways they have effectively dealt with teacher attrition. As members of the audience you too will be invited to share your views and concerns. So do come and participate in what promises to be an engrossing and illuminating session.

Date & Time: Friday, 17th Feb 2017 from 2:30 pm – 5.30 pm
Venue: The Chancery Hotel, A10/6 Lavelle Road, Bangalore- 560001 

Tea/coffee and snacks will be provided ! There is no registration fee.

Do confirm your participation by writing to Ms. Nancy at nancy@teacherfoundation.org or call 95918 24944/8095587431/9901065484

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Designers’ tools for Educators

How teachers can be  designers.
That education today is evolving is an understatement! It is so very different from what it used to be even ten years ago. With the ever present Internet and social media, students are much more aware of what is happening around them. Educators therefore need to constantly evolve their methods of teaching to deal with the challenges of contemporary  classrooms.

Whether it’s about a student not faring well in math, or it's about making the classroom environment more engaging, or the staff room  brighter and more inviting, preoccupation with these routine problems tend to result in loss of productive time in school  and eventually take away creative energy  and focus from the overall physical, emotional and cognitive development of students as well as educators in our school spaces. One vital way of addressing this is through using  an approach that's gaining currency in education - design thinking.

First of all, what is design thinking?

Designers are always using design tools to solve complex problems in the world. It could be about improving sanitation facilities in the neighbourhood, or about better waste recycling in a community or just simply a better designed, fully functional handbag. The design world is limitless! Anything and everything can be designed.

So why not design in education too? Teachers play a very integral role in the development of not just the children, but also the school itself. In more ways than one, teachers are designers. They design the atmosphere of the school so that kids want to go back to school the next day. They design the feeling of belonging and familiarity, a sense of trust and inclusiveness. They design the curriculum, so that students are learning with meaning. They design the system and morals of the school so that students  feel it is their second home. All these things hold value and bring integrity and identity to the school.

So, how can design thinking be used in schools?
Succinctly put, design thinking is a process. It's a process that involves identifying a problem, observing and understanding the causes and effects of the problem, arriving at an opinion, brainstorming, collaborating and ideating to come up with possible solutions to the problem, making quick prototypes and testing the solutions. The solution might not necessarily work, but it will offer a perspective on how to take the process forward and go back to the drawing board and to test the next prototype.

At the school level, it may be about how to make a class more engaging and collaborative, or, about how to make homework more relevant and fun, or how to encourage students to think out of the box, or even about designing a vegetable garden for the school. The same human-centric process can be applied in solving many other common problems that educators face.

In fact, the design consultancy firm IDEO, collaborated with Riverdale Country School, San Francisco, and came out with a Design toolkit for Educators that was tested by the school. There were guidelines for teachers to come together and collaborate to tackle some of the challenges they faced with school students and spaces in school in general. They brainstormed, came up with ideas, good and bad, with no one making any judgments and identified solutions that surprised themselves!

The Role of Failure in Design Thinking
The process can be very messy since no one knows the right answers, it is important to not be too dogmatic about where to start. It's more about moving ahead in the process. It is also important to know that it is alright to fail. Failing is an integral part of the process, and almost a necessity. In fact, failure is just the next step. What is more important is to understand why it failed and what you can do to make it better.

So, why use design thinking?

• It teaches us multiple ways to problem solve.
• It teaches us to think outside the box.
• It shows us how to be more aware of our surroundings.
• It teaches us to be open-minded.
• It teaches us to fail and move on.
• It teaches us to be more understanding about other people’s problems.
• Most importantly, it teaches us to be more empathetic.

Encouraging these traits in a student or an educator can completely transform any space and make it much more inviting and inclusive. Design thinking can really broaden minds and help to get a better understanding of a situation. It lets you get perspective from several sides and promotes positive growth.

Madhurima Kordale, 

Architect & Industrial Designer

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#MeTheTeacher

#MeTheTeacher
What defines you as a teacher?

A “selfie' is worth a thousand words and more!

Tell us what defines you as a teacher in the most creative way possible through a selfie and you stand a chance to win an exciting series of TPODs for yourself and your teacher colleagues.

What you need to do?

1. Capture yourself in a selfie that shows how you define yourself as a teacher.
2. Write a sentence stating why you think teaching is the best profession in the world.
3. Post your Selfie hashtagging #MeTheTeacher along with the sentence on The Teacher Foundation's Facebook Wall or Twitter Feed. 

THREE of the most creative self-defining teacher selfies will win access to TPODs for 20 teachers in your school, including yourself.

How to post #MeTheTeacher Selfie?

• If you are on Facebook, visit www.facebook.com/teacherfoundation and upload your selfie there, hashtagging #MeTheTeacher and your sentence on why teaching is the best profession in the world
• If you are on Twitter, hashtag #MeTheTeacher and upload your selfie there, hashtagging #MeTheTeacher and your sentence on why teaching is the best profession in the world

When to post?
On 5 September 2016 between 9 am and 9 pm IST

Glossary

Selfie

noun. informal

A selfie is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or camera phone held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick.

TPODs

noun. formal 

Teachers' Professional Online Development Series, a bouquet of short modules 

offered by The Teacher Foundation. 

Please note you need to be an Indian teacher teaching in schools in India or anywhere else in the world to be eligible to participate in this contest. 

The Teacher Foundation reserves the right to include or exclude images from the contest. 

The decision of the judges will be final.

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School Leader's Collective 2016 | What Schools Miss Out

The new academic year is now well underway and The Teacher Foundation (TTF) is ready with its next School Leaders' Collective!

We are delighted to announce this month's Collective. This collective is titled What Schools Miss Out. Our guest speaker is Poonam Bir Kasturi, who is also fondly called Compostwali !

So what do schools miss out ?

To quote Poonam:

“1. Our work over the last 10 years in the urban Indian context of waste, points to some positive and some very disturbing observations about student competencies when they leave their schooling programme. The latter are in fact serious because we believe that these attitudes, mindsets and values directly impact the health of our planet.
2. Schools especially in India are in a unique position to be a driver and leader in making a positive impact on India’s environmental health. They have a position of power and authority to create change.
3. While School Leaders are already over loaded with work and the challenges of keeping up with the latest in educational reform, our work reveals that we don’t need 'big' or 'time consuming' or 'the latest teaching methodology' to achieve that change.”

In her talk Poonam will explain how simple changes in the daily life of a school could have far reaching national impact. She will provide different practical, implementable directions that School Leaders could initiate to see the veracity of her arguments. The session will end with a Q & A

Who is Poonam Bir Kasturi ? 
Poonam wears many hats, the favorite of which is her 'witch hat'. She often pulls new & interesting things out of it that challenge her team at Daily Dump. Poonam is trained as an Industrial Designer from the National Institute of Design, has worked as a Design Educator and she now talks to trees, bacteria, clouds and keeps everyone on their toes! As founder of Daily Dump she is passionate about designing for behaviour change around the challenges of waste in urban India. Daily Dump is a brand that she has developed and built to bring fresh perspectives and thought leadership to the sector.

I look forward to having you at what promises to be an engrossing and interactive session.

Date & Time: 22nd July 2016 at 2.45 pm – 5.30pm
Venue: Chancery Hotel, Lavelle Road

Tea/coffee and snacks will be provided ! There is no registration fee.

Do confirm your participation by writing to Nancy / Shane at info@teacherfoundation.org or call 95918 24944 / 8095587430

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Join us for the Second Edition of The School Leaders' Collective.

The new year has begun with full gusto and it's the time when The Teacher Foundation (TTF) holds the first of its School Leaders' Collectives! This year we are doing things a little differently. We are organising separate Collectives in Bangalore East, South, Bangalore Central and Bangalore North. This is in order to make it more convenient for you to attend our collective with minimum
wastage of precious time spent in commuting across the city.

We are delighted to announce 2016's Second School Leaders' Collective for schools in and around Bangalore Central. The theme of the collective is Fostering Creativity in Schools - the role of the dramatic arts. There is a large amount of rhetoric about schools needing to foster life-skills, critical
thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication, popularly called the 21 st century skills, in their students. And schools attempt to address this additional demand on curricular time by having external specialists and service-providers plug this need as a 'bolt-on'. Unfortunately this only serves as a cosmetic
enhancement rather than truly adding value to a child's learning experience.

Drama is the one medium that can incorporate all these 21st century skills organically, with demonstrable learning outcomes. Our guest speaker for the day – Jehan Manekshaw makes an emphatic case for authentic ways of integrating
drama into the learning fabric of every school and the vital role of the school leader in taking this curricular decision. He will also share the different ways in which schools have successfully incorporated drama into their curriculum.

Jehan has a BA in Theatre Direction from Wesleyan College, USA and a MFA in Theatre Directing from Birbeck College, University of London, UK. He is the founder of the Mumbai-based Theatre Professionals. He has also taught as a guest faculty in Ninasam Theatre Institute, Attakallari Centre for Movement Arts
and is a core team member of the Young People's Theatre Programme I look forward to having you at what promises to be an engrossing and interactive session on 12 February 2016.

Following are the details of the School Leaders' Collective:
Date & Time: 12 February 2016 at 2.30 pm – 5.00 pm
Venue: The Chancery Hotel, “Lavelle Hall” No.10/6, Lavelle Road, Next to Reliance Jewels (Mitra
Towers), Bangalore -560001,

Hand outs, tea/coffee and snacks will be provided ! There is no registration fee.
Do confirm your participation by writing to Nancy at nancy@teacherfoundation.org or call at 95918 24944/Nisha 80955 87430 /Mahesh 95918 24945/Ashuthosh 8095587431

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